Sometime prior to 2340, Geordi was trapped alone in a burning building; he later remembered this as one of the scariest moments of his life. (TNG: "Hero Worship")

When he was five years old, Geordi received his first VISOR, which allowed him to see (although not the same way the average Human does) for the first time in his life. (TNG: "Hero Worship") At age eight, Geordi was brought his first pet, a Circassian cat, and he would remember his excitement for years to come. (TNG: "Violations")

Young Geordi spent time with both his parents as a child, sometimes separately. For a time, Geordi lived with his father Edward while he, Edward, studied invertebrates in the Modean system. On other occasions, Geordi would be away from his father, on outposts near the Romulan Neutral Zone with his mother Silva. (TNG: "Imaginary Friend")

At one point in his career as a young officer, La Forge was assigned to pilot Jean-Luc Picard on an inspection tour. En route to their destination, Picard made an off-hand remark about the shuttle's engine efficiency not being what it should. In response to this, La Forge stayed up all night refitting the shuttle's fusion initiators. When Picard discovered what La Forge had done the following morning, he knew right then that he wanted La Forge with him on his next command. (TNG: "The Next Phase")

The first test of his abilities as a starship commander came during an encounter with an advanced planetary defense system in orbit of planet Minos. With the senior officers' away teams entrenched at the planet's surface, La Forge gave the order to send the Enterprise's saucer section to safety and then returned to Minos with the stardrive section to work out a way of evacuating the away teams. While battling a cloaked drone in orbit, he devised a strategy to lure the opponent into the planet's atmosphere, thus revealing its location. In this tense situation, he proved that he had the ability to successfully lead a skeleton crew to victory. (TNG: "The Arsenal of Freedom")

His special vision was impressively demonstrated during an away mission to the drifting freighterBatris. The VISOR data was directly transmitted to the Enterprise-D's main bridge viewscreen, via his visual acuity transmitter, allowing the bridge crew to gain an insight into Geordi's view of the world and to follow the progress of the mission until the datalink failed. (TNG: "Heart of Glory")

An especially demanding situation arose in 2365, after the ship's main computer had been infected by an Iconian computer virus by ways of the log files of the USS Yamato. Those files were the only useful item that remained of this Template:ShipClass starship, after a catastrophic loss of antimatter containment had caused it to explode with the loss of all hands. La Forge was eventually able to disprove suspicions of a general design flaw in Galaxy-class starships which had arisen when the alien program caused more and more shipboard systems to fail. Working with Lieutenant Commander Data, whose positronic brain had been infected as well, he found the solution to the problem in time to save the Enterprise-D from seemingly inevitable destruction. (TNG: "Contagion")

Geordi learned about one particular disadvantage of following in the footsteps of Starfleet's legendary engineers when members of a race known as the Pakled took him hostage, hoping to gain technological knowledge. Although injured, he successfully devised an escape method without further bloodshed. (TNG: "Samaritan Snare")

La Forge used a hologram of Dr. Leah Brahms, the engineer who designed the Galaxy-class, after the Enterprise was ensnared in a Menthar booby trap. He and the hologram Brahms worked incredibly well together, and figured out an escape route for the Enterprise. In the process, Geordi became strongly attracted to Brahms. (TNG: "Booby Trap", "Galaxy's Child")

Later that year, Geordi was trapped on a desolate planet with a Romulan. He and the Romulan at first tried to kill each other, but soon resolved their differences and worked together to survive. (TNG: "The Enemy")

In 2367, he met the real Leah Brahms. La Forge was ecstatic at the chance to meet her, even if on a solely professional level, but he was in for a surprise. Whereas the hologram Geordi had assembled was kind, creative, and warm, the real Brahms was rude, and, much to Geordi's chagrin, married. They worked together to solve a problem on board, but Dr. Brahms found out about the holoprogram and became infuriated. They eventually calmed down and were able to laugh about it, but a romantic future for the two seemed unlikely. (TNG: "Galaxy's Child")

Temporarily transformed into an alien

He would meet an old friend named Susanna Leijten who he had served with aboard the Victory. She told La Forge that several of their crewmates, with whom they had formed an Away team to Tarchannen III, had disappeared. Shortly after, Leijten started to transform into an alien being. He himself became infected, but before he was transformed into an alien, he discovered that shadow aliens on the planet had implanted a parasite into the away team members that turned them into the aliens. This is how they procreate. La Forge was rescued and given an antidote that stopped the transformation. (TNG: "Identity Crisis")

Undergoing severe brainwashing after having been captured by Romulans

At the end of 2367, La Forge was captured by the Romulans, who brainwashed him into assassinating the KlingonGovernorVagh. Klingon ambassadorKell worked with the Romulans from the inside. By tracing Kell's signal to La Forge's visor, they were able to stop the assassination attempt. (TNG: "The Mind's Eye")

When the Enterprise was hit by a quantum filament that caused massive power failure throughout the ship, La Forge and Dr. Crusher were trapped in a cargo bay with dangerous, explosive materials. They daringly decompressed the bay while they were still in it, to jettison the materials into space. (TNG: "Disaster")

He would work with the scientists on Penthara IV after the planet's mantle was damaged by an asteroid hit. His first plan failed but a new one more risky than the first worked and the planet was saved. (TNG: "A Matter of Time")

Later that year, the Enterprise discovered an injured Borg drone in the Argolis Cluster. La Forge helped to repair the drone, and in the process made friends with him. It was Geordi who named him "Hugh". Starfleet initially planned to use Hugh to infect the Borg Collective, but Hugh's emotions, including those he felt towards his friend Geordi, dissuaded this plan. La Forge asked Hugh to remain onboard, but he declined, to ensure the safety of the Enterprise. (TNG: "I Borg")

After answering a distress call from a Romulan ship, La Forge and Ro Laren disappeared during a transporter cycle. They could see each other and everything around them, but no one was aware of them, and they were presumed dead. They found out that the Romulan distress call was related to an accident with their cloaking device, and decloaked themselves by creating enough chroniton fields to force Data to use anyon particles to decontaminate the fields, which also re-materialized La Forge and Ro. (TNG: "The Next Phase")

One of Geordi's dreams came true later that year, when the Enterprise answered a distress call sent out by the USS Jenolan. He discovered that the ship's transporters were configured in a strange manner, and was able to rematerialize someone. That someone turned out to be Montgomery Scott, the Chief Engineer from the original USS Enterprise. Scott had preserved himself in the transporter buffer for 75 years. Geordi was initially overjoyed to be working with such a legend, but Scotty's constant nitpicking about 24th century technology led Geordi to snap at him. This plunged Scott into a brief depression. Geordi eventually consoled him, pointing out that age does not dictate usefulness, and the two worked together to save the Enterprise. (TNG: "Relics")

Later that year, he became romantically involved with fellow Starfleet officer Aquiel Uhnari, who was suspected of murdering her coworker. He eventually proved that the murderer was a coalescent organism. (TNG: "Aquiel")

In 2370, he was captured by Lore, who was leading a group of rogue Borg, who had left the collective due to the individuality Hugh displayed, which Geordi helped to foster, in attacks against the Federation. Lore brainwashed Data into attempting to turn La Forge into a cybernetic organism. This plot was narrowly foiled. (TNG: "Descent, Part II")

Later that year, Geordi's mother, Silva, was listed as missing in action during a mission. Upon further investigation, Geordi found that her image was being used by aliens to lure him into helping them. (TNG: "Interface")

La Forge moments before the destruction of the Enterprise-D's drive section

In 2371, while on an away team investigating the Amargosa observatory with Lieutenant Commander Data, Geordi was knocked unconscious by Tolian Soran. Soran then kidnapped Geordi, and escaped aboard a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. The Klingons traded him for Captain Picard. They put a spy device in Geordi's VISOR, and used it to attain the Enterprise's shield frequency. The device was removed after the destruction of the Klingon ship, but unfortunately, the damage caused to the Enterprise during the flight would prove career-ending for the starship. (Star Trek Generations)

The Enterprise-E

La Forge in engineering aboard the Enterprise-E

After the destruction of the Enterprise-D, he transferred to the new Template:ShipClass USS Enterprise-E in 2372. He, and the Enterprise, then spent a year on a shakedown cruise.

La Forge in 2373

Some time between 2371 and 2373, he had received ocular implants capable of even more impressive functions than his VISOR. This advanced technology no longer required an external apparatus to see.

In 2373, the Borg attacked the Federation colony on Ivor Prime. The Enterprise was told to patrol the neutral zone; Geordi argued that the Enterprise-E was the most advanced ship in the fleet, and should therefore be at the front lines. After Geordi made his case, Captain Picard decided to head to the battle. After destroying the Borg cube, the Enterprise followed the Borg sphere that had left the cube into a temporal vortex it had opened in Earth's atmosphere.

Geordi, along with the entire crew of the Enterprise-E, was transported to 2063. He and an engineering team beamed down to help repair the Phoenix, and got to work with his hero, Zefram Cochrane. He told Cochrane about his attendance at a high school named after him, and a large marble statue erected in his honor. This rattled Cochrane, but he pulled together and made first contact as planned. The Enterprise then returned to the 24th century. (Star Trek: First Contact)

In 2375, while investigating an incident involving Data on the Ba'ku planet, La Forge was able to temporarily see naturally through real eyes as a result of the metaphasic radiation emanating from the planet's rings. Despite this apparent gift, he still assisted Captain Picard in working against the Federation's plans to exploit the planet, concluding that he would be unable to look at another sunrise when he was fully aware of the price that the Ba'ku would have to pay for his restored vision. (Star Trek: Insurrection)

In 2379, Geordi took part in the Enterprise's mission to Romulus. After a fierce battle with the Scimitar, he helped his best friend Data in his task of self-sacrifice to save the Enterprise crew. (Star Trek Nemesis)

Personal life

The major childhood trauma of being alone in his burning home caused him great distress, though he was pulled to safety after only two minutes. His isolation from his field-assigned officer parents amplified his feelings of solitude. (TNG: "Hero Worship")

He enjoyed the senior officer's weekly poker game, and though his artificial "eyes" allowed him to detect bluffing and see his opponents' cards in the ultraviolet spectrum, he never "peeked" until a hand was over. (TNG: "Ethics")

Personal Relationships

Friendships

La Forge always tried to be on friendly terms with everyone around him, yet he only seemed completely at ease in company of his closest friend, Data. The two of them often role-played in holodeck simulations of Sherlock Holmes stories, where Data assumed the role of Holmes and La Forge was Dr. Watson. (TNG: "Elementary, Dear Data", "Ship in a Bottle")

Being self-conscious and slightly nervous, it took him considerable effort to get in contact with potential female partners. This apparently contributed to him falling in love with two women's holographic audiovisual representations when it appeared that he would never get to meet them in person. (TNG: "Booby Trap", "Hollow Pursuits", "Galaxy's Child")

Leah Brahms (hologram)

Working with a holographic representation of engineer Leah Brahms, a key member of the Galaxy-class Starship Development Project and, in a way, the mother of the Enterprise's warp propulsion system, La Forge fell in love with her.

Upon meeting the real Dr. Brahms one year later, in 2367, things were everything but rosy. Both had to work hard to find a way of cooperating, but eventually became friends. (TNG: "Booby Trap", "Galaxy's Child")

Aquiel Uhnari

Investigating into the supposed death of one and disappearance of another officer at a remote subspace relay station in 2369, Geordi reviewed the personal correspondence of the suspected victim, Lieutenant Aquiel Uhnari. In the process, he came to know and like her so much that upon her unexpected apprehension, both formed a short relationship. (TNG: "Aquiel")

Barash recreated the entire command crew of the Enterprise-D in 2367 on Alpha Onias III to keep Commander Riker there. The La Forge hologram appeared without his VISOR, but Riker deduced that the simulation wasn't real when La Forge took too long to conduct basic repairs- really the result of Barash having trouble creating a completely convincing simulation-, informing La Forge that he was "incapable of that level of incompetence." (TNG: "Future Imperfect")

The James Moriartyhologram recreated the entire Enterprise-D in 2369 as part of a ploy to escape the holodeck. Data finally realized the trap laid by Moriarty and revealed it to Captain Picard when they were both in the holographic engineering. Data tossed a tool to "La Forge" who caught it with his left-hand, when he is actually right-handed. Data recognized this as one of the holodeck's initial malfunctions and used the visual lesson to show Picard that they were on the holodeck. (TNG: "Ship in a Bottle")

When Deanna Troi took Riker's version of the Bridge Officer's Test in 2370, it contained a recreation of La Forge. In order to pass the test, Deanna needed to know that on some occasions, she might be required to order one of her officers to sacrifice himself for the good of the ship. During an antimatter leak simulation, Deanna ordered the La Forge recreation to repair the leak at the cost of his own life. (TNG: "Thine Own Self")

Appendices

Background information

Geordi La Forge was played by LeVar Burton in all of the character's television and film appearances.

According to Rick Berman in an interview in the 1995 special Star Trek Voyager: Inside the New Adventure. Tim Russ auditioned for the role of Geordi La Forge, and almost got the role but was beaten by Burton. Russ later won the role of Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager.

The original March 1987 Writers/Directors Guide for TNG had La Forge with somewhat different interests and talents. He wasn't listed as the helmsman, or even a bridge officer, instead being simply an "away mission regular". His "specialty": the "starship school for children". (This was inspired by LeVar Burton's participation in the "Reading Rainbow" educational television series.) It also stated in the guide that there was a plan to visit a planet where Geordi would receive the equivalent of Human eyes, "and their limitations lead to the major disappointment of his young life."

In The Path to 2409, Geordi reentered Starfleet in 2397 and became the captain of the USS Challenger.

In just about all the TNG novels set after the events of Star Trek Nemesis, La Forge's rank is established as being that of full commander. In the novel Indistinguishable from Magic set in 2384, La Forge was serving in a temporary detached role of operations and second officer aboard the USS Challenger when he was promoted to captain and assumed command of the starship on the recommendation from Captain Montgomery Scott upon Scott's retirement. When he returned to the Enterprise-E, Captain Picard named La Forge to the role of Captain of Engineering based on the precedent set by Scott in the same role aboard the USS Excelsior and the USS Enterprise-A.

In the Genesis Wave series, set in 2377, Geordi La Forge admits his love for Leah Brahms, but assures her that he expects nothing in return. La Forge only asks her to meet him at an engineering conference in a few months' time, and she agrees.

In the novel Indistinguishable from Magic, set between 2382 and 2383 La Forge and Brahms are reunited during the U.S.S. Challenger's assignment to investigate trans-slipstream drive. The two begin a romantic relationship, and after the Challenger is destroyed, Brahms moves in with La Forge aboard the Enterprise-E after he accepts his original position. She is convinced to join him when he offers her the opportunity to work on only one vessel, instead of many.

The storyline in the Star Trek: Countdown comic indicates that La Forge and Brahms were married by 2387.

The eBook The Insolence of Office states that La Forge was ordered to have his VISOR replaced with ocular implants by AdmiralHayes or be reassigned to a less sensitive post. This was due to the Romulans manipulating La Forge through his VISOR in "The Mind's Eye" as well as the VISOR being used by the Duras sisters in their attack on the USS Enterprise-D in Star Trek Generations, which resulted in the destruction of the Enterprise.

Languages:

Around Wikia's network

This version of the article has been subsequently revised. Besides normal editing, the reason(s) for revision may have been that this version contains factual inaccuracies, vandalism, or material not compatible with the Creative Commons License.This work may be protected by copyright. Please see 17 USC 108 for more information.